2013 historical fantasy, second in the Order of the Air series. In
1931, the Great Depression is biting and there's not much work for an
air charter company in Colorado. So they enter a cross-country air
race.
The first book of this trilogy was an awkward juxtaposition of
magical shenanigans with aviation action. This time the two come
together rather better: instead of a world-shaking horror under Lake
Nemi, the magical threat is at a rather more personal level, a piece
of Napoleonic-era jewellery with a baleful influence. Our heroes have
to deal with that, and win the air race. There's even a link to the
historical period, with part of the company's financial problems being
the reassignment of existing air mail contracts to larger airlines
following the 1930 Air Mail Act.
Indeed, this strikes the role-playing gamer part of my mind as the
sort of structure I might like to use in an adventure: on the one
hand, there's the mundane challenge of using the advantages of the
aircraft relative to that of the other racers, mitigating its
disadvantages, and heroic piloting. The race is being run as a
publicity event and distraction from hard times, so there are games at
each overnight stop in which non-flying skills can be used to gain a
time advantage. On the other hand, there's the sudden demand of having
to deal with a magical problem Right Now, and of course you can't give
the real reason for your absence to your sponsors and the press. Which
in turn means you need to race even faster to make up for the time
you lost doing that…
The start is still somewhat slow, but once the race itself begins the
pace of the narrative picks up. The characters show a bit more
distinctiveness from each other, and a newly-introduced con artist and
thief provides a welcome dose of liveliness.
It's been quite a while since I read the first volume, but I enjoyed
this one rather more. There isn't a great deal of progress with the
problems that were left hanging at the end of book 1, and in some ways
this feels like an entry in a much longer series – but it's none the
worse for getting away from the great big stakes and telling a more
personal story.
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